As I have said before, and in direct disagreement with Henning, the Rays do not have a weak market as they face almost no competition for baseball, with excellent television ratings. Baseball is a television sport.

A far more likely team to move would be the Oakland Athletics, who have a far worse stadium than the Rays, and direct market competition with a massive franchise in the Giants, who surely would love to control the west coast, bay-area market.

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Oh goody, now Montreal can be part of the ruse to extort cities for new stadiums!

Lynn G. Henning, a writer for The Detroit News, reported at the beginning of this series that he’d had an in-depth conversation with a presumably knowledgeable source that the Rays are on their way to Montreal.

This is a standard rumor for the Rays franchise. Complications of baseball’s worst attendance and most chastised stadium, combined with two very limiting contracts in the lease on Tropicana Field and minimal television revenue, have made this a routine conversation. Purporting an actual source, however, is a new development….

Pre-game conversation with a smart chronicler of the Rays, who believes team is finished in this market and eventually headed to Montreal.

As I have said before, and in direct disagreement with Henning, the Rays do not have a weak market as they face almost no competition for baseball, with excellent television ratings. Baseball is a television sport.

A far more likely team to move would be the Oakland Athletics, who have a far worse stadium than the Rays, and direct market competition with a massive franchise in the Giants, who surely would love to control the west coast, bay-area market.

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We're from Washington; we know the drill. If Montreal can find an equivalent of the Lerners and build its version of Nationals Park, MLB will be back in Quebec. (I personally would prefer the A's go there, with the Rays moving to the AL Central a la the Bucs in the NFC Central all those years, with the Royals going to the AL West.)

Setting aside any consideration of whether this has any chance of happening... Would it be better for Montreal to have an AL team or an NL team? If the former they have more games against Toronto, which would be a natural rival. If the latter they have... tradition?

#2 nailed it - for baseball to return to Montreal, they need a billionaire who wants a team, and a publicly-funded, state-of-the-art stadium. Neither of those things can be found in Montreal right now, and neither of those things are likely to happen in the next couple of decades. Montreal isn't a real possibility, it's just a bogeyman to scare current cities unwilling to give in to MLB's demands. They'll play pre-season exhibition games in Montreal, and maybe even an in-season series or two, just to promote the fiction that Montreal is a viable alternative.

Oddly enough I had dream last night that I was back in time and 18 again. The Cubs had picked me up the year before and right before the season started they traded me away. I was devestated because I was going to be so great that I just knew the Cubs would win the world series that year with me as the starting SS. So with my soul crushed by the apparent stupidity of the Cubs I refuse to play for the new team and instead buy the Montreal Expos. I then go about totally revamping the Expos and build a franchise that knocks the Yankees out in the World Series.

I haven't been to either, but for those who have is this even remotely true? Oakland sure looks better on the TV.

The pre-Raiders Coliseum was quite pretty. Even the current Mt. Davis version is nothing to be ashamed of. I've never understood the near-universal condemnation of the place. It's a perfectly fine place to see a game.

Now how could I miss (or possibly forget) a story like that? Damn. If that or similar problems are recurrent, it would explain a lot about the disconnect between my experience of the Coliseum and all the complaining done by Wolff and Selig.

A lot of the maintenance issues are usually self inflicted wounds. It would be interesting to see who is in charge of maintenance or better yet who sets the budgets and pays the bills for upkeep. At one point in time people thought Fenway was a dump and the Red Sox needed a new stadium. I think even Gammons got in on the Fenway bashing. Then, poofda, new ownership comes in and actually picks up the trash and suddenly Fenway is a great place. Veterans had the same stories told about it as well.

The metro Montreal area has something like 20% more people than it did 20 years ago - and more to the point, 40% more than the metro Tampa/St. Pete area does now.

Montreal would be around the 15th largest metro area with a team (Tampa is 19th), comparable to Detroit and Seattle. The Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario CA metro area would be the only one in the US that is larger and "without" a team. (It is close enough to LA/Anaheim that I don't really consider them to be without a team.)

And unlike much of the population growth in US metros, which generally comes in outlying areas, much of the growth in the Montreal metro area has been within the city. The city of Montreal has seen population rise 60% from 20 years ago.

#2 nailed it - for baseball to return to Montreal, they need a billionaire who wants a team, and a publicly-funded, state-of-the-art stadium. Neither of those things can be found in Montreal right now, and neither of those things are likely to happen in the next couple of decades.

Its just a rumor, and not a good one at that, probably more wishful thinking, but the rumor is that Stephen Bronfman, son of former Expos owner Charles Bronfman, might be interested in bringing a team back to Montreal.

But yea, they need a publicly funded stadium. I'm guessing there isn't much political enthusiasm for that?

I'd be really interested in the Rays attendance numbers if their stadium weren't a pain in the ass to get to. Even if it were just a Trop clone in a better location I think you'd see a big increase as they do gangbusters on local TV, with IIRC the fifth highest ratings overall. There's a lot of Rays fans who find it hard to get to games, and that artificially deflates their attendance.

Hopefully Jonah doesn't want to steal someone else's team. I do think his book has invigorated more conversation about Montreal as a market. It'd be sadly ironic if that contributes towards Montreal becoming the boogeyman to make everyone else worry about losing their team as #5 speculates, or even actually netting them a stolen team.

There is a Liberal government in Quebec City, there is absolutely more than zero enthusiasm for a publicly funded stadium. This is a government that is paying half the bill for an arena in Quebec City for an imaginary Nordiques team, and it would win votes off-island. If it's seen as being the last piece in the puzzle for a team, it's all up for grabs.

As for the money men, the Stephen Bronfman rumor has been around for a while, but there's also Bell Media. TSN in Canada lost ALL of their NHL rights (except for a few regional rights) to Rogers, and the first thing a LOT of people thought (after what's gonna happen to Hockey Night in Canada) is that puts Bell in the baseball business. CFL and junior hockey isn't going to bring in sustainable eyeballs.

There is a Liberal government in Quebec City, there is absolutely more than zero enthusiasm for a publicly funded stadium.

Good for them. A multibillion dollar industry like baseball should be paying its own expenses. Liberal doesn't have anything to do with it. In the U.S. Bud and Co. have found plenty of liberal and conservative politicians to do their bidding.

28: Well, true. A more accurate way to phrase what I meant would have been "The Coliseum, in the interim between the Raiders moving to LA and their return, which necessitated the building of that concrete eyesore beyond center field, was quite pretty." But that seemed too wordy.

As for the money men, the Stephen Bronfman rumor has been around for a while, but there's also Bell Media. TSN in Canada lost ALL of their NHL rights (except for a few regional rights) to Rogers, and the first thing a LOT of people thought (after what's gonna happen to Hockey Night in Canada) is that puts Bell in the baseball business. CFL and junior hockey isn't going to bring in sustainable eyeballs.

It should be noted for those that don't know, Rogers owns the Blue Jays, so TSN getting into the baseball business that way is unlikely.

(And Rogers taking over NHL rights starting this year gives them the two biggest sports tickets in Canada. Not sure what TSN can broadcast now...some Raptors games? I see TSN is launching 3 or 4 new channels this week too...what are they going to be showing?)

The past few days TSN seems like an endless loop of "Top 10 Weird Defensive Plays" and begging for dollars to restore that water park that is rusting away. Oh, and the Canadian Pacific Women's Open golf tourney. Overall, I have been completely underwhelmed by the TSN offerings I've seen while in the upper right corner.

I did see the Blue Jays at Brewers game the other day, but don't know if that's a rarity for them.

In 2009, the Rays totaled 1.8M fans, in 2013, total attendance 1.5M. Obviously 2009 was after their 2008 pennant, but in 2013 they were a playoff team. Franchise relocation should not be taken lightly, though I'm not sure how much weight to put into TV figures, especially if it doesn't translate to butts in the seats...

In the U.S. Bud and Co. have found plenty of liberal and conservative politicians to do their bidding.

Liberal doesn't mean liberal. In context, it means "federalist". I doubt a nationalist or sovereignist government would feel any differently about a publicly funded baseball stadium, however. As noted, they're keen on a publicly funded sports stadium for a profitable professional team, as long as it's the Northmen. I don't see a public outcry for a hypothetical-Expos stadium happening, I don't see how it's in the mob's interests, so I don't see it happening, regardless of who's in power.